


Since the Third Grade

by blairstilinski



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-26
Updated: 2014-11-25
Packaged: 2018-02-27 01:11:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2673284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blairstilinski/pseuds/blairstilinski
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of how Stiles Stilinski came to love Lydia Martin and how she came to love him back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. K

The strawberry blonde picked her head up off the desk as she heard the door open. Since Mrs. Martin had to go to work early, her 6 year old was always the first on in the kindergarten room and the girl had gotten in the habit of watching the other kids come into class. The first, as always, was the too-tall for kindergarten boy who practically dragged him mom into the room every morning. Lydia would never understand why the boy was always so excited to come to school. Lydia liked to learn, but she would never be so happy to come that she would pull her mom to get her go faster. 

She watched as Stiles’ mother bent down to him and pushed his hair back off his forehead to kissed it. Lydia admired the older woman’s long red hair and stroked her own. She hoped that when she was older, she could be as beautiful as Stiles’ mom was. The woman made her way out of the room, making way in the doorway for a blonde girl being carried in on her father’s back. Lydia watched the girl kiss her father goodbye and make her way to her seat and smiled in her direction, earning a smile back. Next came Scott, bounding into the room with his mom trailing behind, per usual.

Scott made his way over to his seat next to Stiles and his mother bent down to kiss his forehead and Stiles’ as well. As the onler brunette made her way back toward the door, she flashed a smile at Lydia who couldn’t help but grin back at the woman who she was convinced was the coolest mom ever. 

Kids started pouring in as it got closer and closer to class time and they started blurring together in Lydia’s mind, only a few recurring things popping out. The way that Venitia Nickerman and her dad had a secret handshake, the fact that Joey Childs got dropped off by his older sister instead of his parents, the way Kelsey Marks didn’t even say goodbye to her mother before making her way to her table, and the way that Lydia’s own best friend, Zoe had both her parents drop her off every day.

Lydia turned her head and locked eyes with Stiles. He raised his hand in a greeting and the strawberry blonde lifted hers in return, causing the boy to blush. Lydia laughed and turned down to her coloring.


	2. 1

Stiles plopped himself on the ground next to the smaller girl and watched her drawing. Lydia always colored with such ease and it made Stiles both jealous. Everything she colored in was inside the lines and she even drew little extra things on the paper that were almost as good as the coloring book drawings themselves. Stiles shook his head quickly, stopping when she looked up at him.

"Yes?" she breathed, half-focused on him, helf on her coloring.

"Do you maybe want to come to my birthday party next week?"

"Stiles, you already invited our whole first grade class this morning."

"I know, I just wanted to make sure that you were going to come."

"Yeah, I’m gonna come."

"Cool," Stiles said casually, breaking out into a smile as Lydia turned her full attention back to the paper in front of her. "I’ll just… yeah." Stiles stood up and walked back over to his place by Scott before looking back over at the girl for a second and wondering what had just happened inside his mind.


	3. 2

Stiles pulled another strand of hair across Zoe’s head and tried to remember what to do next. ”Wrong,” commented a soft voice from beside him, as he felt Lydia’s hands cover his. ”It goes over that one, and then you cross this one, not the other,” the girl said, assisting his hands in doing what she said. When Stiles accidently dropped a strand of the brunette hair in front of him, Lydia sighed and removed his hands from her best friend’s head. ”If you want to braid, you’re actually going to have to try, Stiles.”

The second grader let Lydia guide him so that he was sitting behind her. She led his fingers through the motions using her own hair, and once she was sure he was actually doing it properly, she turned back to her other side where she was helping Alexander Necoranic braid Erica’s hair (he was doing no better than Stiles).

Suddenly Lydia felt a sharp tug from the back of her head. ”Ow!” the girl cried out, dropping the hair in her hands and gently turning her head toward Stiles. The latter looked sheepishly up at her, a long strand of her strawberry blonde hair somehow knotted around his finger, like a string. “Seriously Stiles,” Lydia said with another sigh as she worked her hair out of the knot. ”You’re hopeless.” Once her hair was free, she turned back to Erica, where she was in the middle of a perfect dutch braid. Stiles turned to Scott, who only shrugged in response.


	4. 3

Stiles’ favorite day of the school year was the hundreth day of school. He liked the accomplishment that came with the idea he’d been in school for a hundred days this year, and he liked the games that teachers always played. On this particular hundreth day of school, the class was getting pretty worn out. It seemed that Miss Martinez was running an exercise workshop rather than a fun day of school. The third graders had already done 100 jumping jacks, 100 situps, and 100 of what she called “box steps”. Stiles’ had a lot of energy, but he preferred to use it on things he actually enjoyed. 

The class let out an audible groan as their teacher excitedly announced that push ups were next. Stiles could have cried, but before anyone could even get into push up position, a dainty little hand shot into the air. ”Miss Martinez,” Lydia’s voice rang out through the room. ”No offence, but this is the stupidest 100th day of school ever. Where’s the beanbag tosses and the competitions and the chocolate bars? This is stupid and none of us are going to do push ups.” Lydia raised her eyebrows at the rest of the class and several students, who had been making their way towards the floor as she spoke, stood up quickly.

Miss Martinez sighed as she turned to her desk and reached into a drawer to pull out a basket. The class cheered as they saw the tootsie roll pops sitting inside. ”If someone,” their teacher began. “manages to reach the center of the lollypop in 100 licks, they get to teach the class for a whole hour tomorrow.” The class broke out into excited chatter as the lollypops were passed out.

Not 4 minutes later, the same dainty hand shot into the air again. Stiles turned to see Lydia Martin with a clean lollypop stick raied in the air and a smile of victory on her face. ”I win,” she stated, tossing her hair. 

Later that day, Stiles was sitting in a chair at Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital, unable to shut up. His mother had expected this, it was normal for Stiles to be more than excited on he hundreth day of school, but Stiles wasn’t bouncing and blabbering about school today. ”And then she told the entire class that she was going to teach us all about real math,” the third grader rambled. “Then she glared at Miss Martinez. She glared at her mom,” Claudia laughed. ”And did I tell you about her hair. She had it completely loose today. No clips or anything and it’s like the prettiest strawberry blonde color in the whole wide world.” Stiles stopped bouncing and bit his lip. ”I mean, besides yours.”

Claudia looked at her own hair and gave her son a soft smile, but Stiles could tell that shed already lost interest in his story. That was happening more and more lately, his mom not really wanting to hear about his day. Stiles lowered his voice and tried to speak more slowly, as not to bother her too much. ”I just really love her, mom. And when I’m older, I’m going to spend the rest of my life with her, just like you and dad.” Claudia smiled again and took her son’s hand in her own. ”Of course you are, Stiles. And she’ll be the luckiest girl in the world.”


	5. 4

It was the day that Stiles’ didn’t come to school that Lydia knew. Stiles Stilinski loved school, he almost never missed a day. But on this particular Thursday morning, Stiles’ desk, two seat away from her own, was empty. Coincidently, Scott’s was too. This only solidified the thought in Lydia’s mind. Despite not being a particularly religious person, Lydia said a quick prayer for the lanky class clown. 

Two minutes later, Mrs. Malone confirmed what Lydia already knew. ”As many of you have probably heard,” began their young teacher. “One of your fellow classmates, Stiles Stilinski, has a mother who has been very sick in the hospital,” she took a breath and Lydia braced herself for the news. ”I’m sorry to say that Stiles’ mother is no longer with us. And I know that each of you will help make Stiles feel like he has a family here.” The mood in the room visibly dropped. Mrs. Stilinski had always been a favorite among their class. She baked the best cookies and told the best stories and always stood up for you. 

Mrs. Malone passed out construction paper and markers to make cards to give to Stiles and his dad. Lydia didn’t really see the point. If her mom died, Lydia wouldn’t want a card lying around to remind her all the time. She could write a lot of things about how nice Claudia Stilinski was, but she didn’t really want to. She didn’t want to act like Stiles’ mother was dead because if it was her mom, she wouldn’t want other people to act differently. So instead of folding her paper into a “hamburger” and making a card like the rest of the kids in the class, Lydia found herself drawing a picture. 

Before she left her class that day, Lydia placed a piece of paper on Mrs. Malone’s desk where all the other cards were stacked. She had to admit that he drawing really didn’t make much sense. She’d ended up drawing Ariel from The Little Mermaid, but at the last minute had added a Storm Trooper from Star Wars because she remembered Stiles talking to his mom about it once. And in the bottom of the corner, Lydia left a giant heart and the cursive signiture she’d only just perfected.


	6. 5

Stiles Stilinski was glaring. It was a look he’d perfected over the last week and a look that clued his best friend into the fact that Stiles needed to get away from the situation. Scott steered the other boy towards the benches and away from the spot on the monkey bars where he could clearly see Luke Benson pushing Lydia Martin on the swings. One week ago today, the sixth grader had asked Lydia to be his girlfriend. Ever since that day, Stiles hadn’t stopped bombarding Scott with questions. ”What is she even doing with an older man, Scott?” “Do relationships even count at this age, Scott?” “Do you thnk they’re kissed, Scott?” “What if he ends up coming to our wedding, Scott?” “What does he have that I don’t, Scott?”

Scott had learned to stop trying to answer the questions after Stiles’ had punched him in the stomach when he’d tried to answer that last one. Now Scott simply used his best friend skills to keep Stiles from attacking Luke in the middle of recess. Scott tried his best to listen as Stiles repeated a speech about how he deserved to be with Lydia, a speech Scott had practicall memorized after hearing it so many times. 

Scott broke out of his half daze as Stiles jumped off the bench and onto his feet. Looking over at the swings, Scott so Lydia sitting in the sand looking shocked. ”He pushed her too hard,” Stiles said incredulously. ”She fell off the swing. I’m going to kill him.” Scott wrapped his arm around Stiles before the boy could take a charge at the boy standing the the swings. The two fifth graders watched as Lydia picked herself up, brushed the sand off of her skirt, and proceeded to scream at her boyfriend.

"Well I think it’s safe to say that relationship is over," Scott mumbled, letting go of his best friend.


	7. 6

Lydia Martin didn’t cry in front of people. It was a pact she’d made with herself at the beginning of the year and hadn’t broken yet. So there she sat, arms folded on top of her desk, head tucked under them, holding back the tears that could so freely flow at any moment. And that’s how she was when Stiles walked into the room, and that’s how she stayed until it was time for lunch.

As the other students grabbed their bags and made their way to the cafeteria, Stiles’ lingered, gesturing for Scott to go on without him. Slowly making his was over to Lydia’s desk, he touched her back gently. She shrugged it off and sunk her head deeper. ”Lydia?” Stiles breathed, not wanting to irritate her. ”It’s time for lunch are you coming?” 

Slowly, Lydia lifted her head off the desk and turned to look at him. Stiles was saddened when he saw the tear trackes running down her face, her eyes welled up with more that threatened to follow. ”I don’t have lunch money,” Lydia spat at him, somehow managing to sound bitter and sad at the same time. ”My parents forgot, and I couldn’t make lunch because my kitchen is a war zone filled with divorce papers and hatred.” Lydia put her head back down and Stiles saw her shoulders begin to shake. 

Grabbing his own lunch out of his backpack, he sat down next to her. He pulled the contents out of the brown sack: an apple, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, goldfish crackers, and a juice box. He split the sandwich in half and slid one over to her, along with the juice box and the apple. She felt it touch her arm and picked her head up once more. She stared at the food for a long second and then stared at him, confusion on her face. ”I don’t need that much, had a big breakfast. Apple juice isn’t my favorite juice anyway,” the boy stated with a timid smile. 

Lydia returned his smile softly and picked up the sandwich half. ”Thank you,” she said, almost inaudibly. 

"For the record Lydia," the boy started, bravely. "I think you look beautiful when you cry."


End file.
